


lied even while you held my hand

by torigates



Category: Happy Endings (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It sucks that your roommate is moving out,” Penny said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lied even while you held my hand

  
“It sucks that your roommate is moving out,” Penny said.

Penny looked around Dave’s now half-empty dorm room. It wasn’t so much that Dave’s roommate was moving out, so much as he’d taken all his stuff one day, and never come back. The two of them were hanging out after their early morning psych class. Dave didn’t have class until later in the afternoon, and Penny didn’t have anything else to do all day. That was quickly becoming her favourite part about college: she could take a three hour nap in the middle of the day if she wanted.

“I guess,” he said with a shrug. Dave was half-sitting, half lying on his bed. Penny was sitting on the edge of his desk, her feet dangling over the edge, as she kicked them back and forth. “I kept coming back to find him in various states of undress. It was... unsettling.”

Penny laughed. “Fair enough. I still can’t believe he got caught streaking,” she said.

“Multiple times! I did not come to college to get naked.”

“Speak for yourself,” Penny said.

Dave rolled his eyes.

“So, do you know anything about the new guy?” She surveyed the empty side of the room. It looked so bleak. Dave’s side was filled with his things. Penny didn’t look too closely; she was afraid she’d spot a pair of dirty underwear or something equally gross.

“His name is Max,” Dave said with a shrug. “He should be here anytime.”

Just then the door opened to reveal Dave’s new roommate. He was holding a box and there were two suitcases by his feet. Penny and Dave stared.

“Hey,” he said awkwardly. “I’m Max.”

And damn if he wasn’t cute. Dave’s last roommate had been a real uggo, and Penny never even managed to learn his name, Calvin, Karl, Kevin, something like that. Here was a really cute boy standing in front of her, and she had the perfect in, being Dave’s best friend and all. It was the ideal scenario. When they came to college Penny had promised herself a slutty phase. She had done the plain best friend thing with Alex and Jane all through high school, and Penny wanted a change. She wanted to be front and centre for once, and she was determined to get it. Starting with Dave’s sexy new roommate Max.

Dave got off his bed and walked across the room to help Max with his things. “I’m Dave,” he said. “This is Penny.”

“Hey,” Penny said, and tried to pull off a smile that was equally charming and sexy. She probably managed something closer to constipated or awkward serial killer.

“Awesome,” Max said, and began moving his stuff into the room, pulling clothes and books out of his suitcases and throwing them on the bed or desk. Penny and Dave shared a ‘what do we do now?’ look, but neither of them moved forward to help him or spoke. Max continued to unpack, and clearly for Max ‘unpack’ meant throw everything everywhere and not putting a single thing away.

“Do you want any help?” Penny finally ventured.

Max turned around mid toss. He was holding what a very large text book in his hand, and Penny was half afraid he was going to hurl it in her direction. “What?” he asked. “No, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Dave asked. He was still hovering awkwardly in the middle of the room, standing beside the desk where Penny was sitting.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He turned back to throwing things out of his suitcase.

Dave looked hopefully at Penny, like she could somehow say something that would salvage the situation. Penny had no idea where Dave got that idea from, because she had never been the situation salvaging type. More like the type who says the most awkward thing.

“You know you have a dresser for those things,” Penny said after she couldn’t take it anymore. He was just throwing his clothes on the floor now.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, and turned to face them. He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’m just,” he trailed off. “Sorry.”

“Are you okay?” Dave asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just. Long day.”

“Do you want to come get lunch with us?” Penny asked, hopped down from Dave’s desk, and grabbed her purse. “Dave and I were just about to eat.”

“We were?” Dave asked, shooting her a look. Penny glared at him. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “We were.”

Max hesitated. “Sure, I could eat.” He dropped the pair of jeans he was holding and left his suitcases as they were on the floor.

The three of them walked down to the dining hall. Dave and Penny complained about all the work they had to do for their psych class so early in the semester, and as they chatted, Max seemed to relax a bit.

“So are you two, like, together?” he asked abruptly.

“What?” Penny and Dave asked in unison, stopping in their tracks.

“Woah, Stereo,” Max mumbled.

“We’re not together,” Penny said gesturing back and forth between her and Dave. “At all. That would be. Gross.”

“Hey,” Dave said.

Penny gave him a look. “Fine,” Dave mumbled.

“Besides,” she continued. “What about Alex?” she asked Dave.

Max got a weird expression on his face that she couldn’t quite decipher. Either Max was the most socially awkward person she had ever met, or he was just a bit weird. She couldn’t decide which.

“He has a girlfriend,” she explained to Max, putting her hand on his arm.

“Oh,” Max said. “A girlfriend. That’s cool.”

The three of them grabbed their lunches, and sat down in the cafeteria. Max and Dave immediately latched onto the one topic of conversation all boys have in common no matter what: video games. Penny tried to pay attention for the first five minutes, but after that they lost her completely. It was kind of annoying considering how much she had been flirting, but whatever. She’d known for a long time that when faced with video games her feminine wiles didn’t stand a chance. It was something she had accepted. Mostly, anyway.

“Oh hey, I gotta run,” Dave said after what felt like three years, but was really only about forty-five minutes. “I have class in like ten minutes, but I’ll see you back at the room later,” he told Max. “See ya, Penny.”

“Bye Dave,” Penny said with a wave.

“So,” Penny said, turning her full attention to Max when Dave was gone. “What do you think about Dave?”

“What?” he asked. “He seems fine. Whatever, I like him a normal amount for a dude.”

Penny raised her eyebrow. Maybe Dave’s new roommate was a bit of a weirdo. But he was so hot. Maybe Penny would just make out with him instead of going all the way. “Okay,” she said.

Max looked down at his plate.

“So, you’re being weird,” Penny said after a moment. “Are you normally this way or is something bothering you?”

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Max said.

“It’s okay,” Penny said. “Do you want to get ice cream?”

Max smiled, and it was the first time he actually looked pretty normal. “Sure,” he said. Penny decided to ignore the potential weirdness and go ahead and sleep with him anyway. If he turned out to be a freak that would be Dave’s problem.

The two of them walked around campus, and it turned out that Max was actually a pretty cool guy. They talked about music and movies, and Penny was surprised by how much they had in common. After an hour she was convinced she was a little bit in love with him.

When they walked back to her dorm, Max stood against the door frame while Penny fumbled with her keys. After a moment she finally got the door open, and she turned to smile up at him. He was just so cute and fun, and screw it, she really wanted her slutty phase, she leaned up and kissed him. Max’s mouth was soft and warm against hers, and she felt him inhale sharply through his nose. His hands came down to rest on her waist, and he opened his mouth against hers. Penny kissed him deeper.

Suddenly, Max pulled back and ran his hands over his face. “I—I’ve got to go,” he said, and ran down the hall.

Penny stared after him, and decided that settled it: Dave’s new roommate was a weirdo.

 

 

 

++

 

 

 

She had also promised herself that college Penny wasn’t going to be as obsessive compulsive as high school Penny. If she wanted a slutty phase, then she was going to have to not freak out over every little thing that the boys she kissed were thinking about and doing.

Of course, that only lasted a few minutes.

Three days later, Penny casually stopped by Dave’s dorm. And by casually stopped by, she meant planned it purposefully for a time when she knew Dave wouldn’t be there.

Max opened the door when she knocked.

“Hey,” he said kind of awkwardly.

“Hey,” she said, smiling brightly and leaning against the door. “Is Dave here?”

“Uh, no,” Max said. “He’s in class, I think.”

Penny laughed, as if this were somehow the funniest thing she had ever heard. “Of course. I totally forgot he had class now.” She pushed past Max, and sat down on Dave’s bed. “What are you doing?” she asked.

He looked between her and the door, before moving back and sitting at his desk. “Just doing some reading for class.”

She could see the screen on his computer, and she was pretty sure he was surfing the web, but she didn’t say anything, just nodded.

She asked him about a band he told her about the last time they hung out, and all of a sudden it wasn’t awkward between them anymore. They were just talking and having fun, and Penny really, _really_ liked him. She liked him so much.

Max put on the CD they were talking about, and Penny walked across the room to lean against the edge of his desk. They stayed quietly listening to the music for a long moment, the two of them leaning against his desk, their shoulders brushing up against each other.

When the song ended, Penny turned to face him, and Max opened his mouth to say something. Years later, Penny always wished she had let him get those words out, but she didn’t. She stepped forward into his space and kissed him.

The thing Penny would always remember most was the way Max’s hands settled, solid and firm on the small of her back. The way he tugged her closer to him, and kissed her back, and that, more than anything, she thought was unfair.

They made out on his bed, and Penny thought things couldn’t have been more right. She remembered how happy she felt, she remembered bewildered disbelief that this was actually happening. She was making out with a boy on his bed, and that was the way things were supposed to happen. That was what she was supposed to do in college. She was happy.

 

 

 

++

 

 

 

Later, Dave told her Max was gay, and Penny just sighed, and said she wasn’t surprised. If she cried herself to sleep for three nights straight, well she was the only one who knew it (well, and her roommate. That sure made for an awkward conversation). Later, Penny would say that she had known deep down that Max was gay, but that was a lie. She hadn’t known at all, except for that tiny voice of doubt that said no boy would ever choose her.

But that wasn’t what she told Dave. She sighed and said, of course he was. All the cute ones were. When Penny could finally stand the idea of facing Max, she went back to Dave’s dorm, and pretended like everything was fine. Max apologized and Penny told him it was fine. And it was fine, it would be fine. If Penny never did quite manage to fall all the way out of love with him that was Max’s fault.

 

 

 

++

 

 

 

When they talked about it years after, Penny was drunk, Max was drunk. There was a lot of drunkenness going around. Penny had just been dumped by her latest boyfriend, so she thought it was pretty understandable. Max had shown up at her apartment with a bottle of whisky (“It’s the best breakup liquor,” he told her), and the two of them proceeded to drink a good quantity of it.

“I thought you were _such_ a freak when I first met you,” Penny admitted out of nowhere. Being drunk with Max always made her remember how much she had loved him at first. How much she still loved him.

“Well that’s just not fair,” Max said. My first roommate had just had a freak out over me being gay, I didn’t know how you guys would react. I was off my game. Give me a break.”

Penny rolled her eyes. “You were weird,” she said. “Just admit it.”

“I was not weird,” Max huffed.

“You kissed me,” she said.

“ _You_ kissed _me_.”

“You kissed me back.”

Max grinned, and it was a testament to their friendship how little that stung. “I did, didn’t I?”

“You totally did,” Penny said and punched him. “Which, I would just like to point out was completely unfair.”

“It’s not my fault that I’m super charming and hot,” he told her.

Penny raised her eyebrow.

“It’s not my fault _you’re_ super charming and hot,” he amended.

“That’s more like it.”

The two of them were sitting on the floor in front of Penny’s couch. For some reason whenever Max got drunk he liked to sit on the floor, and then Penny always felt strange if she was sitting on the furniture when he was on the floor, so she always ended up joining him.

He leaned against her shoulder. “You were a good kisser,” he said.

Penny smiled. “Thanks, so were you.”

“I totally would have slept with you if I weren’t gay,” he said.

Penny laughed. “I totally would have slept with you,” she said.

He put his hand over his heart. “That is so nice,” he said.

She laughed and looked down at him. “You’re still a freak,” she said.

“I know.”

 

 

 

++

 

 

 

And yeah, maybe sometimes when Penny thought about it, it made her sad that she was a little bit in love with her gay best friend. It made her a little bit sad to compare all the men in her life to her gay boyfriend, and have them all come up short. Sometimes it made her sad to know there would never be a man in her life that she’d love more than Max, but when it came down to it, she wouldn’t trade her friendship with him for anything else, because he might be a gay weirdo, but he was her gay weirdo, and she was fine with a little heartbreak if that meant she could keep him. 


End file.
